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The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything soundtrack

reviewed by Russ BreimeierCopyright Christianity Today International

20071 Dec

COMMENTS

Sounds like … VeggieTales' penchant for silly theatrical songs, along with some instrumental score music, as well as pop tracks by the likes of Relient K, Mandisa, tobyMac, newsboys, and Steve TaylorAt a glance … the soundtrack to the VeggieTales second feature film is a hodgepodge of fun silly songs, lively pop tracks, and mostly forgettable instrumental musicTrack Listing Opening Title/Spanish Gold Jolly Joe's Yo Ho Hero&mdash;newsboys with Steve Taylor Rock Monster The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything&mdash;Relient K What We Gonna Do?&mdash;tobyMac The Right Thing&mdash;Mandisa The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything&mdash;Silly Song version The Sea Medley One-Eyed Louie The Cave Medley Walking Rocks Donkey Shaped Help-Final Battle I Give You Three Heroes Spanish Gold reprise/Celebration Second Chances - Anointed

It used to be that VeggieTales albums were merely collections of silly songs from their enduringly popular children videos. But things have changed in recent years. Some albums have the Veggies sing the songs of Christian artists, and some have Christian artists singing Veggie songs. And sometimes you get a little bit of everything, like this soundtrack for the second VeggieTales feature film, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

As you'd expect, creators Phil Vicher and Mike Nawrocki contribute lyrics and voices throughout. And regular VeggieTales composer Kurt Heinecke is on hand for the arrangements, which at times sound typically synthetic (i.e. keyboards), but much of it is orchestrated. It yields some fun silly songs like "Jolly Joe's" (an "Argh"-heavy square dance for pirates) and "Rock Monster" (an adaptation of the B-52's "Rock Lobster"). Others are more generic, like "Spanish Gold," a theme song that merely establishes the characters as pirates.

Kids will enjoy all of that (even if parents don't), but may respond less enthusiastically to the instrumental bits. A track like "I Give You Three Heroes" is easy enough to identify with its scene from the movie. But ironically, an action sequence like "Donkey-Shaped Help/Final Battle" will seem boring to kids who aren't well acquainted with film scores.

The pop tracks are the real draw to this disc. Young and old will love the funky grooves of Mandisa's "The Right Thing" (written by Matthew West) and tobyMac's "What We Gonna Do?" which both promote the film's call-to-action for heroes to do the right thing. Anointed performs "Second Chances," a lively gospel-pop bonus track written by David Mullen (Nicole C.'s husband). And how fun to hear Steve Taylor taking the lead vocal with newsboys, playing pirate on "Yo Ho Hero"&mdash;it's a little more "of the movie" than their "In the Belly of the Whale" song was for Jonah but clever nonetheless. Of course, you can't have this soundtrack without the silly song that inspired it (as well as the Relient K cover of the same song).

Some bonus video content rounds out a VeggieTales disc that's mostly fun for kids. Still, I bet they'll have more fun with the DVD than the CD.